New year, New projects!

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts. It's been a rough year without much time for costuming. On the bright side my schooling is going fantastic! On the bad side, there is just so much I haven't done!

Updates!
I have YET to start my Ezio costume for Baron Babbles, though he's not forgotten and pointed this out to me almost every week. This laziness ends this year. I want him to have something awesome to wear for RenFest this year, and I feel like I can't feel good about my stuff unless he has something too. Plans are in the works for this as we speak, stay tuned for the beginning baby steps of this.

I have decided that I am ready to start a new costume for myself. I'll probably wait until after this season to really get it going so I have plenty time to draft my pattern. I'll probably begin posting about this around August or September. I'm just so excited for this, though, because I really am ready for the next step.

Right now I have a few extra projects I'm working on. I'm trying to become well rounded in costuming, and so I'm currently trying a few different small projects to get my feet wet. Honestly, probably the best advice I could give anyone going through the same thing I am is practice, practice, practice!! So I am undertaking a few little side projects to help me hone my skills! As always, I will update the blog with updats on the process.

Fox Tails - Yay!
One of my favorite things to do when in character at the faire is to swish or pet my fox tails. I have 3 currently that are fabulously fluffy, and I usually drape them over my arm and pet them as I snear at the commoners (I never said I was a nice noble ^^). When I'm not being noble, I'm usually wearing them as a tail and feeling quite frisky. They're really great fun overall, so I decided to try to make my own.

I'm starting ambitious - I'm making a (roughly) 2.5ft long tail with about a 3 inch... er... pull? I can't remember the right word for it. But it's roughly 3 inches plus the core in diameter, meaning it's super fluffy. I'm making it all out of yarn, and am trying to blend several colors together to make it realistic as possible. I've been working on this on and off for about a month or two (VERY SLOWLY), and I'm ready to be done!!

Step 1 - Planning and Prep:
If you know me at all yet, you know I'm about a gajillion percent preparation when it comes to projects. It's easy to do while I'm on break at work or at home while I'm putzing around the web, and it makes it so much easier to actually get things done later. For this project, I did a fair amount of research, and I feel pretty confident about the whole thing. The one thing I didn't fully grasp when watching videos online is that this project takes FUREVER (ha! ... get it... FUR...Ever.... Yeah okay). It's INSANE amounts of labor - it's not hard or difficult for the most part, it's just time consuming.

My plans includ a tail of some kind that I can wear (for when I'm feeling frisky), that still is realistic looking and feeling. I need to have a rigid shape to some of it, but I want to retain as much fluidity and natural movement as possible.

• Youtube - Just search Yarn Tails in youtube, and you'll find a million different tutorials about this. The one I followed closely was Cosplay Creep's video - I preferred her method of sewing the "fluffs" rather than tying them on. I think this will blend better.
• Forums - In case you're new to the internet, there are people called Furries out there - similar to Cosplayers or Rennies, Furries enjoy costuming and taking on a persona, though their personas are, as you may have guessed, animals. Since most Furries need tails, there's a ton of forums out there discussing in detail how to correctly assemble all kinds of tails.

My goal is to complete this tail using some kind of rigid core in key areas, keeping the other parts... well, flacid (-snicker-) to allow for the realistic movement. I'm not sure what I want to use as a core - maybe wire, maybe fabric stabilizer, maybe glue sticks - who knows??

Step 2 - Brush, Brush, and Brush Again:
So.... Yeah. This is the hard part, and I completely understand why people hate doing these on commission. This is intense! If you're too lazy to watch the youtube tutorials, the basic idea is this: get a bunch of strings of yarn the length you want, and tie a knot in the middle to keep 'em in place. Now brush. Brush brush brush. Brush until the yarny bits look like fluffs of fur. Do this for all 800,000,000 fluffs. Then, flat iron them all and brush once more.

Needless to say I'm still in the brush phase - I've planned out some of the coloring and blending, so it's just implementing. Pictures will follow!!